The greatest WWE wrestlers of all time

And finally, it’s time to reveal the player at the No. 1 position in our series on the greatest WWE wrestlers of all time!

No. 1 – “Stone Cold” Steve Austin

He is a six-time WWF Champion, a Hall of Famer and the biggest box office draw in pro wrestling history. These are just some of the accolades for the man known by most fans as “Stone Cold”. Steve Austin: the man who helped usher in a new era of pro wrestling, bringing the company once known as WWF (now WWE) to unprecedented heights – heights not seen even during the days of Hulk Hogan and “Hulkamania”.

Austin started his career much like every other wrestler, toiling on the independent circuit. Austin initially stuck mostly to Texas, as those were still the territory days, and he took training under the late “Gentleman” Chris Adams. After just a year of training, Austin won 1990’s “Rookie of the Year” prize by Pro Wrestling Illustrated, the number one wrestling magazine in the world at the time. Armed with loads of charisma and soaking in every bit of wrestling knowledge he could like a sponge, Austin was already making waves despite his lack of experience. Later that same year, after Texas-based World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) finally shut down (the promotion Austin was working for at the time), WCW, the number 2 promotion in the US, came calling. Austin debuted later that year, and won his first major title, the WCW World Television Championship, just weeks after his debut, defeating tag team specialist “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton for the gold.

Austin would stay with WCW until 1995, picking up a second TV title along the way, as well as both the NWA and WCW World Tag Team titles as part of the Hollywood Blondes, with partner “Flyin” Brian Pillman. After the Blondes split up, Austin moved back into the singles ranks, and looked poised to be on the fast track to a main event program with a pair of WCW United States Championships. Back then, the US champion was basically considered the #1 contender to the WCW World title, and plans were on for Austin to step up to then-champion, the much heralded Hulk Hogan. However, Hogan and the company president saw things differently, looking at Austin as nothing more than a mid-carder who wasn’t very marketable. After returning to the company from a knee injury in 1995, Austin suffered another injury, this time to his triceps, while on a tour of Japan. At this point, Bischoff fired Austin over the phone, telling him he wasn’t marketable and that they had no use for someone so bland.

While rehabbing his injury, Austin was contacted by ECW owner Paul Heyman, who happened to be a close friend of Austin’s. Heyman knew Austin was hurt, but offered him the chance to come on his show, be himself and tell the world exactly what he thought about WCW. Austin liked the idea and soon joined the renegade promotion from Philadelphia, delivering incredible promos that were well-received all across the board, and helping to prove how wrong Bischoff was about Austin’s lack of marketability. Eventually, Austin returned to action, working for ECW and helping build the company up as something special. Although plans were in place for Austin to become the ECW World Champion, he refused. Instead, he saw things a little bit differently, and wanted to help put some of the homegrown talents in the company over, specifically perennial underdog Mikey Whipwreck. In a match for the championship, Austin put Whipwreck over cleanly, putting both the new champion and the company as a whole over in the process. He later put over company favorite the Sandman, who Austin credits with helping develop his own “beer drinking” gimmick. It was obvious to everyone that Austin was destined for bigger things, and he left the company later that year when the WWF finally came calling.

Austin’s first year with the company wasn’t great. He was given the name “The Ringmaster” and quickly put with “The Million Dollar” Man Ted DiBiase as a mouthpiece while also being given the Million Dollar Championship, an unrecognized title in the company. After just a couple of months, Austin got frustrated with how he was being portrayed in the company, especially after the creative team told him they really had nothing for him at that moment. However, they told him to come up with some ideas, and after watching some documentaries on serial killers, specifically “Nightstalker” Richard Ramirez, Austin decided he should have that kind of killer edge to his gimmick. The management liked the idea, and gave him a list of names he could choose from, all of which sounded horrible to Austin (“Chilly McFreeze” being the most noted one). So Austin decided he would come up with his own nickname, and during a discussion with his then-wife Jeannie over a cup of tea, she told him to drink his tea before it turned “stone cold”. And thus, a brand new nickname, and gimmick, were born.

After the gimmick change, Austin rid himself of Ted DiBiase as his manager, who headed to WCW to become involved with the n.W.o. angle. Austin’s persona had really begun to take shape, and a few months later at that year’s King of the Ring, Austin won the tournament and uttered the now-famous promo ending in the line “…Austin 3:16 says ‘I just whipped your ass!’”, giving birth to a brand new catchphrase and millions upon millions of dollars in merchandise sales.

Austin’s character continued to evolve, becoming more anti-establishment every week with a no-nonsense, in your face, “I say I’m going to beat you up and then I’m going to do it” attitude. Add in plenty of profanity and beer drinking, and Austin became a symbol of hope for every man who had become sick of things and wanted to do something about it, but was unable to do so. But Austin’s attitude soon created a feud with company owner Vince McMahon, and led to “The Stunner Heard ‘Round the World”. Austin became the first man in history to attack his boss on WWF television, leveling McMahon with a Stone Cold Stunner and kicking off a feud with the boss that lasted for 4 years; a feud that helped bring the “Attitude Era” to its zenith and eventually crush WCW in the ratings.

After a falling out with WWE over some bad booking decisions in 2002, Austin eventually returned at the February 2003 PPV No Way Out, defeating then-RAW general manager Eric Bischoff in a quick comedy match. While Austin looked good on the outside, unfortunately, a spinal injury from 1997 resulting from a botched tombstone pile-driver by Owen Hart at that year’s Summer slam had begun flaring up again, and a month later at Wrestlemania XIX (an event I had the privilege of attending and being in the first row for), Austin wrestled his last match, losing to The Rock. Six years later in 2009, Austin was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, capping off a legendary career for good.

Although Austin’s WWE career was relatively short (around 8 years), he left an indelible mark on both the company and the sport altogether, helping bring wrestling to heights it had never seen before, and hasn’t seen since. During his reign, Austin and WWF/E were two of the hottest subjects in all of sports and pop culture; Austin made millions of dollars for himself and turned Vince McMahon into a certified billionaire in the process. Even Hulk Hogan, who, during the 80s and early 90s, did much the same thing for WWF and McMahon, can’t claim to have brought in numbers like Austin did. During Austin’s run with the company, the TV shows received their highest ratings in history, PPV buy rates were off the charts, and merchandise sold faster than it could be made. To put it simply, Austin helped make watching wrestling acceptable again.

Austin was truly a one-of-a-kind performer, bringing success to WWE that we will likely never see again in our lifetimes.

Watch this compilation that highlights Stone Cold Steve Austin‘s amazing achievements at the WWE: